Artist · 16 prints
Diego Velázquez Prints
About Diego Velázquez
Diego Velázquez (1599–1660) was a Spanish painter, baptized in Seville in June 1599. At about eleven he was apprenticed to Francisco Pacheco, the city's leading painter and art theorist, and in 1618 he married Pacheco's daughter Juana. In 1623 he painted the young King Philip IV in Madrid, and the king made him court painter. He travelled to Italy twice, in 1629–31 and again from 1649, to study painting and buy art for the king. He died in Madrid in August 1660.
Velázquez painted royal portraits, everyday kitchen scenes and portraits of court jesters and dwarfs, giving each sitter real dignity. Up close his brushwork is loose and quick; from a few steps back it resolves into cloth, light and skin. Key works include The Surrender of Breda (1634–35), the Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1650), still in the Doria Pamphilj Gallery in Rome, and Las Meninas (1656) in the Prado in Madrid. Édouard Manet called Velázquez the "painter of painters".
Diego Velázquez prints: reproductions of paintings by the Spanish Baroque painter Diego Velázquez, made between about 1618 and 1659. The collection includes Las Meninas (1656), An Old Woman Cooking Eggs (1618), The Supper at Emmaus (1622), Juan de Pareja (1650) and Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress (1659).
This selection centres on portraits: the Spanish royal family, including Prince Baltasar Carlos and the infantas, court jesters such as Calabazas, and sitters such as the poet Luis de Góngora. It also includes early Seville kitchen and tavern scenes, such as The Three Musicians, and the later Needlewoman. Most works set greys, blacks and warm skin tones against dark backgrounds.
The dark, restrained palettes suit studies, libraries, dining rooms and hallways; the full-length royal portraits work well on a large wall above a sideboard or fireplace. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with low-glare acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
